The drama comes from Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight. 

We’ve been keeping an eye on the BBC’s latest Charles Dickens adaptation for a while and now there’s a date. The new version of Great Expectations, from Steven Knight (of Peaky Blinders fame) land on BBC One and the iPlayer on Sunday March 26th, 2023.

With a cast headlined by Olivia Colman (Heartstopper, The Crown), the show come from FX Productions in association with the BBC, Scott Free and Hardy Son & Baker.

So that’s a production team which includes Steven Knight, Ridley Scott and Tom Hardy!

While the story may be familiar to many, it will be fascinating to see what spin Steven Knight puts on the tale. He certainly took his adaptation of A Christmas Carol in a chilling direction! Great Expectations may be less fantastical, but there’s plenty of darkness in Dickens’ story to be explored.

Here’s how the press release sets it up:

Great Expectations is the coming-of-age story of Pip (Fionn Whitehead), an orphan who yearns for a greater lot in life until a twist of fate introduces him to the mysterious and eccentric Miss Havisham (Olivia Colman) and Estella (Shalom Brune-Franklin), showing him a dark world of possibilities. Under the great expectations placed upon him, Pip will have to work out the cost of this new world and whether it will truly make him the man he wishes to be.

Olivia Colman leads the cast, with Fionn Whitehead (Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) and Shalom Brune-Franklin (The Tourist). The adaptation also stars Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Hayley Squires (The Essex Serpent), Owen McDonnell, Laurie Ogden, Matt Berry, Trystan Gravelle and Rudi Dharmalingam.

Great Expectations also has an attractive new poster too: